The present invention relates generally to the field of shock absorbers and stabilizer mountings. When a Navy ship or submarine experiences shock and vibrations under normal operation, adverse weather conditions, seismic events or battle conditions, relative motion occurs between parts of the equipment being supported and the ship's structure. Since most large items of equipment are usually supported from two or more distinct portions of the ship's structure as, for example, between deck and overhead or between deck and bulkhead, damage occurs causing the installation to break loose either at one or both attachment points.
In the past, slip joints, shear bolt joints, shock mount and vibration isolators have been employed for supporting and securing items of equipment. The item of equipment may be any electronic, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, etc., object or piece of hardware that requires protection against high impact shock and vibration forces. These joints and connecting devices have been designed to fail at a predetermined low shock level or to attenuate shock acceleration forces, respectively. Each time the shock levels are exceeded, it is necessary to inspect and repair or replace all mounting joints and isolators that have failed. This process is costly both from logistics and manpower standpoints.
Items of equipment have also been secured both to the deck and to a bulkhead by means of rigid top, side or rear support braces of an indeterminate number of configurations. In many cases shock and/or vibration isolators of one type or another are also improperly used, usually in an undesirable cantilevered fashion. The result is a hodge-podge of items of equipment being installed with mounts, support braces, pipes, tubes, bars, bushings, angle irons, etc. These costly and inefficient methods of installation are a result of the necessity of the item of equipment to nearly always be installed near a bulkhead, the necessary excursion space associated with and required by shock and vibration isolators, and a complete lack of standardization in most installations. The problem is further compounded by the fact that all of these crude efforts to support the items of equipment result in only a minor degree of improvement in environmental protection.